More than 1,700 flights in the US are canceled or delayed due to strong storms this Tuesday

() — The disruptions for air travelers continued Tuesday with more than 1,700 flights delayed or canceled across the United States following severe storms that ravaged parts of the country, including the Mid-Atlantic and parts of the Northeast, where many hubs of activity are located.

Data from FlightAware shows that as of Tuesday morning, 910 flights into, into, or out of the United States were delayed and another 808 cancelled. Still, this is a significant decrease from the chaos on Monday, when more than 8,000 flights were delayed or canceled due to bad weather already personnel problems in air traffic control.

Once again, United Airlines was the worst of the US domestic airlines. About 12% of its schedule, or 338 flights, were canceled and another 3%, or 92 flights, were delayed until 7 a.m. ET. Republic Airways, which operates short-haul flights for American Airlines, Delta and United, canceled 17% of its schedule (153 flights) but suffered few delays.

The four US airports most affected this Tuesday morning are the main hubs of United or Delta operations: Newark Liberty (New Jersey), LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy (New York), and Logan (Boston).

More than 40 million people in the Northeast and Central Plains are at risk from severe storms this Tuesday. Most of those at risk are in the Northeast, including Philadelphia and the city of Washington, where a level 1 of 5 threat has been issued by the Storm Prediction Center. A level 3 of 5 severe weather threat is highlighted for parts of Kansas and Oklahoma, including Wichita and Tulsa.

Scattered storms are again expected east of a cold front from the Mid-Atlantic into parts of the Northeast, which could lead to even more flight delays and cancellations down the road.

Some of these afternoon storms could produce damaging wind gusts, and heavy rain from these storms could produce isolated instances of flash flooding, particularly in parts of southeastern New York, Delaware, and Pennsylvania.

United CEO blames FAA staff for ‘unprecedented’ weekend delays

This Tuesday is the fourth consecutive day of flight delays and cancellations. They began on Saturday, when air traffic controller staffing issues disrupted numerous flights, posing “unprecedented challenges” for United.

“The FAA quite frankly let us down this weekend,” United CEO Scott Kirby said in an internal company memo shared with . The airline canceled 461 flights last Saturday and Sunday and delayed another 1,972, according to FlightAware data.

Kirby says the FAA on Saturday reduced arrival rates at its main hub at Newark Liberty International Airport by 40% and departure rates by 75%, which was “almost certainly a reflection of a lack of personnel and the least experience in the FAA”.

“It caused massive delays, cancellations, diversions, as well as crews and aircraft out of position,” Kirby said. “And that got everyone behind the eight ball when the weather really hit this Sunday and was further aggravated by the FAA staffing shortage on Sunday night.”

Kirby says he will meet with the FAA and DOT “to discuss what steps the FAA can take in the immediate term to prevent this from happening again this summer.” The FAA responded this morning by saying that “we will always work with anyone who is seriously willing to join us in solving a problem.”

The pressure on one of the world’s largest commercial airlines comes as millions of passengers are expected to fill flights for the Fourth of July holiday weekend, which United says will be its busiest Fourth of July travel period since the covid-19 pandemic occurred.

In the memo, Kirby was careful to say that the current leadership of the FAA did not create the current personnel problem, but rather has to solve it. “To be fair, it is not the fault of the current FAA leadership,” he wrote, but added that “they are responsible for solving the problem they inherited.”

‘s Monica Garrett, Pete Muntean and Greg Wallace contributed to this article.